1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an apparatus for handling paper money, such as a bill exchanger, an automatic bending machine, etc., more particularly, concerns a currency handling apparatus provided with a stacker to store bills fed into the apparatus.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A current bill handling apparatus includes money exchanging or vending machines each provided with a paper money detecting device or a validator for identifying the authenticity or denomination of a bill, bank note or paper currency inserted therein. When inserted into an inlet of the validator, the bill is conveyed along a passageway by a belt-pulley arrangement through sensors which detect optical or magnetic characteristics of the bill. In a typical bill handling apparatus of this kind, the validator discriminates between real money and counterfeit money for a bill fed into the apparatus by a central processing unit (CPU) composed of a microcomputer on the basis of data detected from the bill, and it passes a bill only when judged as valid and real money. After the validator checks the inserted bill and detects same physical properties as those of a genuine bill from outputs of the sensors, the validated bill is transported by the conveying device and stored in a compartment of a storing box called "stacker" wherein bills are accumulated for storage while exchanged bills, coins or goods are put out in a tray of the machine. Adversely, if the validator can not decide the inserted bill as genuine, the belt-pulley arrangement is driven in the reverse direction to return the bill to the inlet. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 4,629,194 to Bob M. Dobbins, et al. indicates a prior art validator and U.S. Pat. No. 4,722,519 to John Zouzoulas shows a stacker apparatus.
When filled up with bills, the stacker is detached from the apparatus, and the bills are removed from the stacker, and the empty stacker is attached again to the apparatus. A pushing device is rigidly mounted in the stacker to forcibly push a bill supplied from the conveying device into the compartment in the stacker. This pushing device has link members connected into X shape each other with hinges, and each end of link members is attached to a pushing plate. Therefore, when the link members are operated for extension or retraction, the pushing plate is moved forward or backward to forcibly push the bill into the compartment of the stacker. Also, provided in a casing of the stacker is a slit-shaped intake port connected with an exit of a passageway of the conveying device to smoothly convey a bill.
However, as a pushing device of the conventional bill handling apparatus is fixedly incorporated in a stacker as one unit, it needs a new stacker with a pushing device to increase or reduce capacity or volume for storing bills in the stacker. Therefore, a conventional bill handling apparatus has defects in that the pushing device can not be exchanged with another one and in that bill storing capacity can not easily be adjusted. Also, when a pushing device under malfunction or breakdown is required to be replaced with new one, it needs replacement of an incorporated stacker itself, and thereby makes maintenance operation difficult.